The Cochise Robotics Association (CRA) is a small group of volunteers. Its mission is to assist the expansion of a 21st century high-technology workforce by inspiring the students of Cochise County's elementary, middle and high schools to pursue science and technology careers.
For the 2007-2008 school year the CRA intends to secure funding for the activities of the student membership of the Buena High School Robotics Club. Through its 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, the CRA strives to raise and disburse funds necessary for the club to design, build and compete a robot under the auspices of the national "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" (FIRST) program.
The growth of defense and security related high technology initiatives in Cochise County has outstripped the community's ability to provide an adequate qualified workforce to satisfy the demand for engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and other personnel with expertise in the physical sciences. This is especially true for those positions requiring workers with security clearances which makes up a sizable percentage of the available jobs. The shortfall of qualified candidates for these highly prized positions will eventually limit the growth of the county's high technology industries thus forcing employers to consider moving to other parts of the country with a higher density of qualified technology workers.
Providing funding to the Buena Robotics Club will allow the club to get first-hand experience in managing a challenging project, building teamwork, setting goals and milestones, and in general learning what engineers and scientists do by actually doing it in a competitive, resource limited environment. A study conducted by Brandeis University has shown that the participants of FIRST competitions are significantly more likely to go on to college to study engineering which is a key objective of the CRA in meeting its mission.
Fielding a robot in competition is surprisingly expensive. The entry fees for two regional competitions costs $10,000 alone. The robots themselves are custom made of high quality components, can weigh as much as 120 pounds and must be robust to survive in a bruising match against other similarly built competitors. Such a robot can easily cost over $5,000 depending on its capabilities. The travel costs to participate in two regional competitions can cost the club another $15,000. Providing funding of this nature is somewhat beyond the resources of the typical high school student and his/her parents. While smaller sponsors do help considerably, it still requires one or two major sponsorships from some larger organizations and foundations to adequately resource these expenses. The CRA was founded to identify and seek funding from the larger funding sources that are required.
This year as in the previous two years of the club existence, they have been the recipients of a $10,000 robotics grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The CRA wishes to supplement that amount with additional funding to be provided to the club in the form of payments of invoices to their suppliers or upon presentation of a receipt for materials purchased by the club treasury for robot-related materials. Therefore, this proposal requests funds for the purpose of permitting the Buena High School Robotics Club to field a robot for competition in this school year�s competitions hosted by the FIRST organization. Other funding from local sponsoring businesses will also be sought out.